James McCloud, a Seattle district attorney, gets an early-morning phone call from his sister Celeste announcing that their father's body has been found. Police officer Daniel McCloud disappeared years ago - but this discovery proves that he was murdered. When James returns home to Cold Falls, New York, he's reunited with his mother Ada and his troubled, gay younger brother Billy. His brother-in-law Nate is the town sheriff, and the mistrust that has hovered between them since school still simmers, and as the truth emerges, so do powerful secrets.